Lufthansa will be able to assign Airbus A320-family aircraft to its CityLine division, and potentially to Air Dolomiti, in 2019 after a collective agreement reached with pilots last year created "lots of room" for reallocation of aircraft among units, group chief executive Carsten Spohr has highlighted.

Spohr says that while the terms of the collective agreement signed with the Vereinigung Cockpit union in October 2017 stipulated that a minimum of 325 aircraft be operated by pilots at Lufthansa mainline, Lufthansa Cargo and Germanwings by the end of 2022, this still gave the airline group "freedom" to move jets without "breaking" the pact.

As a result, regional unit Lufthansa CityLine will receive A319s next spring, while Air Dolomiti could also gain A320-family jets, says Spohr.

Flight Fleets Analyzer shows that CityLine operates a mixture of Embraer 190/195s and Bombardier CRJ900/1000s, while Air Dolomiti flies a fleet of E195s.

Lufthansa disclosed during October that CityLine would start operating an A319 from Munich next spring and a further five by the end of 2020